The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-06-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
"The Heavens Opened"

aud the Son of man standing on the
right hand of God. Then they cried out
,rtth loud roice. uhd stopped their
ears, and ran upon Him ,cith one accord,
und cast him out of the city and stoned
HIM; and the tcitnesses laid dopn their
clothes at a young mans feet, ,Chose name
,oas Som. And they stoned Stephen, cdtiing
upon God, aud Saying, Lord Jesus, ,ecefue
my spirit And he hneeled dO,n, and cried
,rtth q loud roice, Lord, lay not this sin TO
their charge. Aud ,rhen he had SGid this
he fell asleep. Acts vii $500.
Stephen had been preaching rousing ser
mon, and the people could not stand it, They
resolved to do as men sometimes would like to
| do in this day, if they dared, with some plain
| preacher of Righteousness kill him. The
| only way to silence this man was to
| knock the breath out of him. So they rushed
Stephen out of the gates of the city, and with
| curse, and whoop and below they brought
him to the cliff, as was the custom when they
wanted to take away life by stoiiing. Having
| brought him to the edge of the cliff they
pushed him off. After he had fallen they
came and looked down, and seeing that he
was not yet dead, they began to drop stones
upon him, stone after stone, stone after stone.
Amid this rain of missiles Stephen chambers
! up on his knees and folds his hands, while
the blood ditps from his temples to his cheeks
| from his checks to his garments, from his gar
ments to the ground and then, looking up,
! he makes two prayers-one for himself and
one for his murderers Lord Jesus, receive
my SPIRIT" that was for himself Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge;n that was for his
assailants. Then, from pain and loss of blood,
he swooned away and fell asleep.
want to show you to-day five pictures.
stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen look
ing at Christ, Stephen stoned Stephen in
his dying prayer. Stephen asleep,
| First, look at Stephen gazing into heaven
| HTtOIp ta ta laap yp,, 10,
where you are going to land. Before you
climb ladder you want to know to what
| point the ladder reaches. And it was right
that Stephen within few moments of
heaven, should be gazing into 1t. We would
all do well TO be found in the same posture.
!here IS enough in heaven to keep us gazing.
| man OF large wealth may have statuary in
the hall, and paintings in the sitting rom,
and works of art In all parts of the house, but
| he has the chief pictures in the art gallery,
! and there, hour after hour, you walk with
catalogue and glass and ever increasing ad-
miration. Well, heaven is the gallery where
| God has gathered the chief treasures of His
realm. The whole universe is His palace. In this
| lower room where we stop there are many
adornments; tesselated floor of amethyst
| and blossom, and on the winding cloud-stairs
are stretched out canvas on which commingle
azure, and purple, and ffron, and gold.
But heaven is the gallery in which the chief
| oioi ico oit Sdttlelttl Ileib are IIe DIlplltSb
| robes There are the richest crowns. There
are the highest exhlarations. John says of
| 1t: 1.-The kings of the earth shall
bring their honor and glory into itn
| And l see the procession forming and in
the line come all empires, and the stars spring
up into an arch for the hosts to march under
| lhey keeps to the sound of earthquake and
the pitch of avalanche from the mountains
and the flag they bear is the flame of a con-
| suming world, and all heaven turns out with
harpS and trumpets and myriad voiced &C
| elimination OF angelic dominion to welcome
| them in, and 80 the kings of the earth bring
ther honor and glory into it. Do you Won
| der that good people often stand like Stephen
looking into heaven: We have great
many friends there. There is not a
man in this house to-day so
Isolated in life, but there is some one in
heaven with whom he once shook hands As
a man gets older, the number of his celestial
acquaintance very rapidly multiplies. We
have not had one glimpse of them since the
night we kissed them goodbye and they went
away; but still we stand gazing at heaven.
AS when some of our friends go across the
sea, we stand on the dock, or on the steam
tug, and watch them, and after awhile the
hulk OF Tie vessel disappears, and then there
Is only patch of sail on the sky, and soon
that is gone, and they are all out of sight,
and yet We stand looking in the same
direction :. so when our friends go
away from us into the future world we
keep looking down through the Narrows. and
gazing and gazing as though we expected
that they would come out and stand on some
evening cloud. and give us one glimpse of
their, blissful and transfigured faces While
you long to join their companioDship, and the
years and the days 60 with such tedium that
phey break your heart and the viper of pain
and sorrow and bereavement keeps gnawine
at your vitals, you still stand, like Ste
| nhan GAZING into haavan
II they have changed since you saw them last,
You wonder if they would recognize youl
lace now, SO changed has it been with trouble
You wonder if, amid the myriad delights
they have, they care as much for you as they
used to when they gave you a helping hand
and put their shoulder under your burdens
You wonder if they look any older: and some
time, in the evening tide, when the house is
all quiet, you wonder if you should call them
by their first name if they would not answer
and perhaps sometimes you do make the ex.
pertinent and when no one but God ard your
self are there you distinctly call their name
and listen, and wait, and sit gazing into
heaven.
Pass on now, and see Stephen looking upon
Christ. My text says he saw the Son Of Mar
at the right hand of God. Just how Chris.
looked in this world, just how he looks in
| heaven, we cannot say. A writer in the time
of Christ says describing the Saviour's per.
sonal appearance, that He had blue eyes and
light complexion, and a very graceful struct-
ure; but | suppose it was all guess work.
The painters of different ages have tried to
! imagine the features of Christ, and put them
upon canvas: but we will have to wait until
with our own eyes we see him and with our
own ears we cam hear Him. And yet there
is way of seeing and hearing Him now.
| L have to tell you that unless you
see and hear Christ on earth, you
will never see and hear Him in heavenl
Look There he is Behold the Lamb of
God. Can you not see Himl Then pray to
God to take the scales off your eyes. Look
that way-try to look that way. His voice
comes down to You this day-comes down to
the bllndest, to the deafest soul, saying:
Look unto Me, all We ends of the earth, and
be ye saved, for am God, and there is none
else" Proclamation of universal emancipa
tlon for all slaves. Proclamation of universal
amnesty for all rebels. Ahasuerus gathered
the Babylonish mobiles to his table; George ].
entertained the lords of England at a ban
quet Napoleon Ill. welcomed the Car of
Russia and the Sultan of Turkey to his feast
tif Emperor of Germany was glad to have our
minister. George Bancroft, sit down with
him at his table; but tell me- We who know
most OF the world history, what other king
ever askel the abandoned and the forlorn
and the wretched, and the outcast, to come
and sit down beside him! o. wonderful in
vitation You can take it to-day, ana
stand at the head of the darkest alley in al
this city, and say; ''Comel Clothes for
your rags, salve for your sores, throne fol
your eternal reigning." A Christ that talk
like that, and acts like that, and pardon
like that-do you wonder that Stephen stoot
looking at Hun? | hope to spend eternity
doing the same thing | must see Him,
must look upon that face once cloudet
with my sin, but now radiant with m,
pardon. want to touch that hand tina
knocked off my shackles. | want to hea
that voice which pronounced my deliverance
Behold Him, little children, for if you live t.
three score years and ten you viii see nom
SO fair Behold Him, We aged ones, for HI
only can shine through the dimness of you
failing eyesight. Behold Him, earth Be
hold Him, heaven What moment whei
all the nations of the saved shall gather
around Christ All faces that way. AL
thrones that way, gazing, gazing on Jesus.
q" His worth IL all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him, toe"
pass on now, and look at Stephen stoned
The world has always wanted to get rid o
good men. Their very life is an assault upoi
wickedness. Out with Stephen through tn
gates OF the city. Down with him over tn
precipice Let every man come up and droI
a stone upon his head. But these men di,
| not 50 much kill StsD.leu ns thay killed them